Minneapolis mother knows no holiday from heartache

MINNEAPOLIS - Nearly one year after bullets tore through the wall of their north Minneapolis home and killed her 3-year-old son, Marsha Mayes is still searching for answers.

The day after Christmas, 2011, 3-year-old Terrell Mayes was fatally shot while running from gunfire that erupted outside the family's house. Police still have not found his killer.

Terrell's mother and his three brothers have begun their first holiday season without the child who made his family laugh.

"It's been a rough road. Real rough," Marsha Mayes told KARE 11 from her Minneapolis home on Thursday.

"He was at home minding his own business eating his dinner. They didn't give him a chance to grow up. They didn't give my baby life," she said.

Mayes said she struggles with the lack of progress in her son's case. She also holds out hope his killer will eventually do the "right thing."

"It's been a year. You know that you did this. Whoever was in this car, letting off those rounds know that they took a life now. Turn yourself in," she said.

Mayes said the family considered not celebrating Thanksgiving. She said Terrell's brothers - Ezra, 12, Ezarenta, 11 and Marrell, 3 - weren't "feeling" the holidays. But the family will begin the holiday season with extended family after all. And Mayes said her fourth son will join them in spirit.

"He here with us. So he all right. He in a better place," she said.

The Minneapolis Police Department still has two investigators assigned to the case. There are no suspects in custody. There is a reward of more than $10,000 for information leading to an arrest in this case. For more information on that just go to Terrell's website.

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